CITY COULD SEE 1ST LATINO MAYOR

Alvarez, Aguirre in contention, but rivals aren’t ceding support of key voting bloc

The potential pool of Latino voters has grown steadily in recent years. Latinos account for 30.5 percent, or 409,000, of the city’s residents compared to 42.6 percent, or 570,000, non-Hispanic whites, according to the 2012 American Community Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Latino voters could be the key to winning the special election — if they show up to vote. Minority communities typically have lower turnout compared to whites and that is particularly true in nonpresidential elections.

A U-T San Diego/10News poll released Sept. 23 had Alvarez leading the way among Latinos with 42 percent of likely Latino voters picking him. Fletcher was second with 23 percent support among Latinos followed by Faulconer with 13 percent and Aguirre with 5 percent.

Among all voters, Fletcher led with 30 percent, Faulconer had 22 percent, Alvarez had 17 percent and Aguirre had 9 percent.

Alvarez, 33, has a life story familiar to Latinos with fresh roots in San Diego. Seeking a better life for their family, his parents immigrated in the 1970s from the Mexican state of Jalisco. His father worked as a farmworker.

“In this city there’s a lot of people struggling so I think my story, the values that my parents taught me, really resonate with everybody throughout the city,” Alvarez said. “That’s certainly the story of our country, right? It’s what we’re founded on so I think we should be very proud that in the eighth-largest city in the country we have someone who is a son of immigrants who has the potential to become mayor.”

Still, Alvarez said he doesn’t think his ethnicity will be a factor in the race.

“I would hope that it actually doesn’t make a difference because a mayor represents all people, and that’s what I’ve done on the council,” he said. “In this country we’ve come so far, and while ethnicity might play a role in the values of an individual. … I think, as a democracy, we elect the best candidate and that’s why I’m running for mayor.”

Aguirre, 64, traces his Latino heritage to his Mexican grandfather who came to the United States in 1918 and raised his family in San Diego. Aguirre met labor leader Cesar Chavez while a student at UC Berkeley and later worked for him as a lawyer.

Like Alvarez, Aguirre said ethnicity shouldn’t matter when choosing the next mayor.

“For me, I would like to argue that the very best candidate won on the merits and that candidate just happened to be Latino,” Aguirre said. “We want to live in a world in which the best candidate gets elected and the Latinos are voting for the best candidate, not just because he is a Latino. And I think that’s where we are today because it’s illustrated by the fact that Filner had huge support in the Latino community.”

This is the second year in a row the San Diego mayor’s race has provided an opportunity for a first. Then-Councilman Carl DeMaio and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis vied to become the first gay mayor last year but each fell short.